Research: Research Trends in Science Education from 2008 to 2012: A systematic content analysis of publications in selected journals

Argumentation is a discourse through which knowledge claims are individually and collaboratively constructed and evaluated in the light of empirical or theoretical evidence. In science education, it is considered to be a core practice that can empower students develop their reasoning skills either by explicitly teaching argumentation in the context of real-world ethical dilemmas or by creating the conditions through which students engage with argumentative discourse through appropriate activities. Lin et al. (2014) indicated that argumentation has been studied mostly in the context of various socio-scientific issues, suggesting that these research topics were widely considered to be closely interrelated by science educators.